... On the side of angles? Libertarians: the true defenders of geometry.

Yes, the horrors of not being able to edit after posting. Ah well.

By the way, we are told that Pythagoras:

"distributed his pupils into two orders, and called the one esoteric, but the other exoteric. And to the former he confided more advanced doctrines.... Whenever anyone repaired to him with a view of becoming his follower, the candidate-disciple was compelled to sell his possessions, and lodge the money with Pythagoras, and he continued in silence to undergo instruction, sometimes for three, but sometimes for five years. And on being accepted, he was permitted to associate with the rest; and remained as a disciple, and took his meals along with them [this is identical with the corporate structure of the Essene community and brotherhood]. If otherwise, however, he received back his property, and was rejected. These persons, then, were styled Esoteric Pythagoristae (Hippolytus, Refutation, I, ii)."

They were pagan gnostics and the true religion was more important than anything else: geometry was just one part of the "mysteries."

:-)

I hurt myself laughing at the following:

Beautiful image

LWM, sitting at home in his lonely apartment, his vintage "Die Yuppie Scum" T-shirt and his extra-husky Transformers Underoos, writing hate mail to Simon Wiesenthal and updating the Wikipedia entry on Henry George.

What, you couldn't get a solo ticket for the IceCapades?

I am still trying to forget I ever read that; what comedian wrote that for god's sake? I was concentrating on Glenn's idea of a 'noble and good' America before Bush, and now all I can do is sit here and laugh.

Damn. :-)

WT: ... L.W.M., please consider making love, not war with the libertarians. Show, don't tell; the passion you can explain is, after all, not the true passion. ...

Stay out of it William, it has been the funnest thing I have read in years following LWM and the others today. I think one side has been drinking today. (you decide which side) :-)

RP: "... In fact it is the federal government more than anything else that divides us along race, class, religion, and gender lines. Government, through its taxes, restrictive regulations, corporate subsidies, racial set-asides, and welfare programs, plays far too large a role in determining who succeeds and who fails in our society. This government "benevolence" crowds out genuine goodwill between men by institutionalizing group thinking, thus making each group suspicious that others are receiving more of the government loot. This leads to resentment and hostility between us. ..."

That is the message; that is why each 'team' wants to win so much --- to plunder the other side. A pox on both sides.

... In the meantime, however, I proudly point out that one of my libertarian co-bloggers ...

I'll see your Weigel, and raise you a Sobran.

http://www.sobran.com/columns/2007/070612.shtml

The main difficulty in dealing with collectivists such as LWM, is that they abhor real freedom. Where do you go from there?

LWM: ...I will not make deals with the devil at home. I would make deals with the devil outside of the home to fight a real enemy, if we had one. To give up progressive causes here at home just to end this war, I just will not do it. ...

The translation of the above is that he will do anything to preserve the collective, as long as 'his side' has the power so that 'his side' may plunder others at will.

Oddly, that did not work out so well for many progressives in the old USSR where Stalin did not seem to value 'commitment' so much. The show trials are a must read for all you budding collectivists out there.

Oddly, the collectivist government of Mao did not seem to care about some of the party loyalists either.

Oddly, the collectivist government of Pol Pot ... nah, you look it up.

Right wing authoritarians are evil, but left wing authoritarians are no better at all; and both kinds are collectivists at heart who bray at the moon, "resistance is futile, you will be assimilated." As LWM just wrote, he would keep killing women and children if it meant his authoritarian, collectivist schemes were preserved.

Ixnay on the iscourseday.

Yes, dark lord.

:-)

LWM to Anonymous: "Thank you for putting me in such august company as George Orwell and Noam Chomsky."

Noam Chomsky:

"I find myself in substantial agreement with people who consider themselves anarcho-capitalists on a whole range of issues; and for some years, was able to write only in their journals. And I also admire their commitment to rationality – which is rare…."

~ Noam Chomsky, in an interview entitled "Noam Chomsky on Anarchism," December 1996